The present invention pertains to a device for holding coin cups used to hold coins by patrons of gambling establishments.
Gambling establishments customarily supply coin cups for their patrons for use in holding coins which are played in slot machines. Typically, a user will take a coin cup and fill it with a number of coins which are then used when playing the slot machines. This coin cup allows the user to carry the coins around in a convenient manner. Also, when the patron of the gambling establishment wins at the slot machine, the slot machine will expel numerous coins, the quantity of which depends on the particular win. These numerous coins are then placed in the coin cup by the winning patron and either spent again at the slot machine or other gambling tables, or kept by the patron as his winnings. In any case, the coin cup has become the means by which patrons of gambling institutions carry around their coins.
However, even though the coin cup makes it easier to carry around coins as compared with, for example, having to carry the coins in one's hand or one's pockets, the coin cup still has many inadequacies. For example, the coins carried in the coin cup become a heavy burden when carried by the user for a prolonged period of time. Also, because the coin cups of various individuals are identical, there is always the danger that one will set down his cup next to another individual's and pick up the wrong cup. Furthermore, patrons carrying around coin cups may be subject to pilfering by unscrupulous individuals at the gambling establishment when the cups are placed down as the player rests his arms.
In addition, gambling establishments often wish to promote their establishment using, for example, inexpensive items which may be used by the patrons of the gambling establishment while at the establishment. Furthermore, it is desirous that such items have some imprinting which affiliates the item with the particular gambling establishment or has some other promotional reason. Such gambling establishments also give away such items to their patrons, in which case the cost associated with each item is of particular importance and must be kept to a reasonable minimum. Additionally, such an item should have some useful purpose pertaining to the gambling experience and ideally will have a positive effect on the patron by, for example, reducing the fatigue associated with performing the gambling activity.
There has been an attempt in the past to provide a means for transporting a coin cup used by patrons at a gambling establishment. U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,761, issued to Luque, discloses a slot bag gambling accessory in which a closable pouch is used to transport a coin cup. However, among the many inadequacies of this prior attempt is the relatively complicated structure of the device which increases the cost and difficulty in manufacturing the device. Also, this prior attempt, which discloses a closable pouch to fully enclose the coin cup fails to provide an easily manufactured product which the gambling establishment can afford to give away to its patrons, while still providing a device which has utility when used by the patrons while performing a gambling activity at the gambling establishment. Thus, there is a need to provide an apparatus which is inexpensive to manufacture, durable, and provides the utility of supporting a coin cup used by the patron at the gambling establishment.